As far as SMT artwork is concerned I am far more enticed by the Soejima side of the coin, as opposed to the Kaneko. While I feel Kaneko's work stylistically offers a great deal more "character" than Soejima's, I am just a sucker for the lush color anime work Soejima has cranked out in recent years. However I certainly am not turned off by either artist and I will totally give credit where credit is due.... Kaneko is responsible for the visual direction of my absolute (new) favorite protag. ever- Tatsuya from Persona 2.

Kaneko seems to work in a very signature palette of sorts. That, coupled with his distinct "style" of drawing, makes his work recognizable from a mile away. Having that strong of an "identity" to your art, is what makes a stellar artist in my book.

And that is all I have to say about SMT artwork... now back to my grind through p2EP... I'll be back in a week or two when I'm finished-LoL

EDIT: On the note of Eternal Punishment... I am floored with the amount of optional content in this game. I can't imagine how long it would take if I really wanted to get to most of the optional stuff. With so much other stuff on the shelf calling my name (coupled with the fact that I haven't played ANYTHING other than SMT/Persona stuff for the last 2 months) I am ready to move on but damn I wish I had the time/wherewithal to manage to get some of more rare persona and whatnot.

At 60 hours in, with a tentative 10-15 to go (I imagine) I can easily see how this game could demand 100+ hours and still leave you with a great deal to do if you so desired... I wish I discovered this when it came out in my childhood/teen years... this could have been a whole summer vacation worth of gaming-LoL

While are people arguing over the art? It's clear that people have different tastes and in the end it all boils down to personal taste in art. I personally prefer Kaneko, but Soejima's Persona art is fantastic as well. I played Persona 2 a long time ago, but it wasn't until Digital Devil Saga and Persona 3 that I became a really big Megaten fan.

As far as SMT artwork is concerned I am far more enticed by the Soejima side of the coin, as opposed to the Kaneko. While I feel Kaneko's work stylistically offers a great deal more "character" than Soejima's, I am just a sucker for the lush color anime work Soejima has cranked out in recent years. However I certainly am not turned off by either artist and I will totally give credit where credit is due.... Kaneko is responsible for the visual direction of my absolute (new) favorite protag. ever- Tatsuya from Persona 2.

Kaneko seems to work in a very signature palette of sorts. That, coupled with his distinct "style" of drawing, makes his work recognizable from a mile away. Having that strong of an "identity" to your art, is what makes a stellar artist in my book.

And that is all I have to say about SMT artwork... now back to my grind through p2EP... I'll be back in a week or two when I'm finished-LoL

EDIT: On the note of Eternal Punishment... I am floored with the amount of optional content in this game. I can't imagine how long it would take if I really wanted to get to most of the optional stuff. With so much other stuff on the shelf calling my name (coupled with the fact that I haven't played ANYTHING other than SMT/Persona stuff for the last 2 months) I am ready to move on but damn I wish I had the time/wherewithal to manage to get some of more rare persona and whatnot.

At 60 hours in, with a tentative 10-15 to go (I imagine) I can easily see how this game could demand 100+ hours and still leave you with a great deal to do if you so desired... I wish I discovered this when it came out in my childhood/teen years... this could have been a whole summer vacation worth of gaming-LoL

Yeah, it's easy to see why Atlus USA of that era was only able to localize EP. It's a demanding game, and has a TON of content, arguably more than P3 or P4.

Tying up some loose ends in p2EP before moving on to what I presume to be the last dungeon (although I could be wrong) I came across the second Mu Continent 10-minute race-dungeon. Now I LOVE this game. I love it so much I feel like I'm feakin' 14 playing FF7 again for the first time... I haven't a bad word to say about it really... but I will say THIS (with caps and extra ellipses for effect of course) !!! HOW THE HELL DID THEY EXPECT YOU FIGURE OUT THAT PASSWORD IN 10-MINUTES!!! RIDICULOUS I SAY!!!!

I used estoma... I got the hints... but damn man... the was cruel... I will say no more on the matter to avoid ruining the lovely brain teaser for those who have yet to experience it.

There is no shame in that my friend. In all honesty, I think anyone who says they figured that out in 600 seconds without a faq is a freakin' LIAR!

On the subject of faqs and mu continent (because I have a terrible fear of checking guides) does anyone have any advice on which persona are worth spending the time to acquire/unlock via the gambling prizes? I have gambled my way on blackjack up to 20,000 coins and DO NOT have the patience to do so much more so I want the most "persona bang" for my coinage so to speak.

Figures! I spread the rumor at the beginning for blackjack to payout big. I did so on account of just enjoying the blackjack game.... after seeing that blackjack does NOT in fact pay out big (not by my definition at least) I had a funny feeling i botched that decision.

If it was in the game I would probably think the game was balanced around that being in mind, so I would use it.

Since it's DLC I know it's not necessary and thus I won't use it.

I'll end up using it because these SMT games kick my ass!! My recent runs of P2EP and Soul Hackers have proven to be the most challenging gaming experiences I have had in recent history to be honest.... Well ok, Agarest war 2 on hard was more difficult but in a completely different "frustrating and unfair" sort of way... anyhow, point being I will exploit any edge I can get in SMT IV even if it costs me a couple bucks as I now suffer from PTSMTS (post-traumatic-shin-megami-tensei-syndrone)

Yeah, plus, the demon is just a palette swap of an existing demon. I'm not too concerned. Selling ways to "quickly" clear a game is pretty popular these days, but I doubt it'll be necessary. We'll see what else comes later.